(urth) Tzadkiel's form

[Lee]

>Marc Aramini: Flora attained a magic flower to impregnate her.  I can't believe

>there was argument on the list about Spring Wind being Mars, whose ceremonies

>are primarily in March.  Making it a red flower is Wolfe's innovation, I think, that

>links the story to fire.


I thought it might be worth a mention to any who may not be so familiar with Kipling

that the "red flower" is used in the Jungle Book, with Mowgli-Frog, Shere Khan, etc.

to refer to fire, it being Man's special gift.


The special gift of fire as conferred by a superior being is best known in the Prometheus

story but that story has echoes in the Judeo-Christian tales of Lucifer, the light bringer and 

Azazel the (scape)goat god/demon who, like Prometheus is chained to a rock for his interference

with humanity.


I'm pretty sure Wolfe is aware of these alternately sympathetic and nefarioius views  of the 

fire/light bringing deity among ancient peoples. I think this may be part of what is behind

the admonition to Severian that what is happening to him and Urth is more than just a battle

between "good" and "evil". There has been much recognition on this board in the past that

both "good" and "evil" end up serving God's plan equally.


>Another thing from Eschatology and Genesis that strikes the reader is that the Autarch is 

>confused with God by Meschia. ........ Even though the autarch is not played by Sev in that 

>scene.


He is played by Dr. Talos who also plays the part of archangel Gabriel. When you consider

Dr. Talos' detailed familiarity with cosmic knowledge, his knowledge of Earth, his skills in

beautification, his amazing artistic and literary skills, his association with the "godling"

Baldanders and his mythological name, I find little doubt that he is in some way 

associated with the other pagan gods/aliens/fallen angels who roam the Urth.


>Also, the last man's name of Ash (teutonic Ask) whose wife Embla had a name which meant vine. 

>They were supposedly created from a dead tree and its dead parasite by Odin and crew. Which

 l>eads me to believe that both futures came true simultaneously, somehow. [the trees and lianas

>of Green]


More broadly, I would mention that when Severian travels the Brook Madregot, he finds that it 

only branches travelling upstream, not downstream. Leading me to the conclusion that in this

universe, a common past may indeed lead to multiple futures which all exist. Master Ash 

disappears when Severian drags him into the branching in which the New Sun appears. If he

had somehow dragged Ash across the frozen plain of Urth's atmosphere, I presume he would

not have disappeared.